Aurora Survivor Wants To Help—With A Badge

Yale senior Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent ducked a mass murderer’s bullets in a Colorado movie theater. He survived to give state lawmakers advice Monday about how to prevent more massacres—and declare his intention to help by becoming a New Haven cop.

Rodriguez-Torrent (pictured) spoke at a packed all-day hearing at the state Capitol called by a special panel exploring a wide range of gun-control proposals in the wake of the Dec. 14 massacre at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School.

At the hearing Rodriguez-Torrent, who’s 22, spoke in favor on several proposed measures, including ones that would limit gun purchases to one per month and close a loophole enabling buyers to avoid background checks by purchasing weapons at gun shows.

Rodriguez-Torrent also told his own harrowing personal story.

Rodriguez-Torrent testified alongside his friend Stephen Barton. The two young men from Southbury last summer set out by bicycle from Virginia Beach, bound for San Francisco. They made a stop in Aurora, Colorado, where they met a friend and went out to see the movie The Dark Knight Rises on July 20.

They happened to pick the same showing as a gunman who entered the theater and opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

After his testimony, Rodriguez-Torrent said that when the shooting started, he thought it was fireworks. Then he realized it was gunfire. “I hit the ground.”

Rodriguez-Torrent was not shot. Barton was hit in the chest with a shotgun blast, and survived. A third friend survived a bullet wound to the head.

Rodriguez-Torrent said that he realized he was in a Columbine-like situation. He worried that a shooter might be waiting at the exit for people fleeing. He recalled the feeling of relief he felt when he saw a police officer outside instead—“knowing that I was safe.”

Surviving the attack and seeing that officer had a deep effect on Rodriguez-Torrent. He enrolled this past fall in a course that Chief Dean Esserman teaches at Yale called “Policing America.” As part of the course spent about 12 hours on ride-alongs with New Haven cops. Now, he said, he wants to join the force when he graduates this spring with a degree in East Asian Studies.

It comes back to that cop who calmed him on sight in Aurora, he said. “I want to be that guy. Somebody has to be that guy.”

2:50 P.M.: Mayor, Holder-Winfield: Cities Know Gun Violence

Amid tearful testimony from parents of Sandy Hook victims, two top New Haveners reminded state lawmakers Monday that “spree shootings” produce far fewer deaths than does the grinding, routine violence found in Connecticut’s cities.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield delivered that message in separate testimony before a panel of lawmakers at the state Capitol in Hartford Monday afternoon.

They addressed a special task force meeting to consider gun-control measures in the wake of the Dec. 14 mass killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown.

At 1:15 p.m., Mayor DeStefano, who has spoken out nationally on behalf of stricter gun-control measures in Newtown’s wake, sat before the panel Monday on behalf of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, which has submitted 13 recommendations for changes to gun laws. (Click here to read them.)

“The plain fact is that gun homicides are nothing new in America or in Connecticut,” DeStefano said. Cities like Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven live with gun violence “day after day.”

Gun violence comes in three forms, DeStefano said. The first, and most prevalent, is the kind that takes the lives of mostly young African-American men. It most often involves pistols which are obtained illegally, and drugs are often also involved.

The second type is that associated with violent crimes like robberies, and most often involves people already identified as criminals, DeStefano said.

Third, and most rarest, is “spree shootings” like the Newtown massacre, DeStefano said.

Lawmakers need to deal with all three kinds, with the understanding that banning assault weapons will do nothing to prevent a shooting by a drug dealer with a .22-caliber pistol, DeStefano argued.

DeStefano proposed four actions: enact stricter licensing standards, close all gun purchasing loopholes so that no one can buy a gun without a background check, require mandatory gun registration, and create a gun offender registry. The registry, while similar to a sexual-offender registry, would not be open to the general public. Cops would use it to stay on top of potential shooters.

After a break, state Rep. Holder-Winfield (who’s preparing to run against DeStefano for mayor this year) recounted talking with a 15-year-old boy whose cousin had been shot. Connecticut has seen between 88 and 100 gun deaths each year for the last several years, he said. “That’s a slow, banal, mass killing.”

He said the panel should be looking at gun trafficking along with the other issues at hand.

12:55 Line Out The Door For Today’s Gun-Control Hearing

As state lawmakers led by New Haven state Sen. Martin Looney begin considering new gun control measures in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, hundreds of people turned out to a hearing in Hartford. On line, a Newtown dad encountered an NRA member—and the debate began.

State police estimated that at least 1,000 people showed up to attend the all-day hearing on gun control Monday. The line to get in the Legislative Office Building on Capitol Avenue snaked all the way to a nearby parking garage and back.

A state police officer was turning people away from the full parking garage. People were sent to an overflow lot a mile away, where a shuttle ferried people back to the hearing building.

(Click here to read a story detailing the gun-control measures Looney and allies are proposing.)

Greg Gordon, a 70-year-old retired heavy equipment operator from Coventry, sat in the front row of the shuttle. “This whole deal is a knee-jerk reaction,” he said.

An NRA member, Gordon said he owns a hunting rifle, a couple of pistols for target shooting, and a shotgun for home defense. He said more gun laws will only infringe on the rights of lawful gun owners.

Newtown Dad Encounters NRA

Outside, the Legislative Office Building, two sides of the post-Sandy Hook debate met in line. Fran Walenta and Scott Hoffman, NRA members from Suffield, stood in line in front of David Stowe (at left in photo), a Newtown father of two elementary school kids.

Walenta said that ammunition purchasing restrictions are “foolish.”

“Why do you say that?” Stowe said.

If I buy shotgun shells to hunt birds, “you’re going to run a background check on me?” Hoffman (at right in photo) said incredulously.

Walenta said he’s open to seeing some changes to laws coming out of Newtown. “There should be some discussion and compromise.”

Stowe said he’d like to see permitting required for the purchase of ammunition, and regulations so that people can only buy ammunition for guns for which they have a permit.

Stowe, who’s not a gun owners, said his kids don’t attend Sandy Hook, but are friends with Sandy Hook students. Later, from a seat in the hearing chamber, Stowe teared up as a Sandy Hook dad spoke about seeing his son with a bullet hole in his forehead.

Inside the Legislative Office Building, past two metal detectors and a sign on the door reading “All weapons prohibited beyond this point,” people signed up in the atrium to testify. Paul Elsenboss of Woodbury wore a beaver-pelt coat and sticker on his hat readying “Another responsible gun owner.”

“I believe that guns aren’t the problem,” he said. “I’m afraid of more restrictions.” Adam Lanza didn’t obey any gun laws when the killed 20 kids in Newtown, he said.

The real culprit is “the breakdown of the family,” he said.

Elsenboss said he would be open to the creation of a national gun registry.

At 12:30 p.m., more than two hours after the hearing began, people were still lined up out the door to get in.

Click here to read live tweets from the hearing filed by the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary.

Post a Comment

Comments

posted by: Atwater on January 28, 2013 2:24pm

What was the point of this hearing? Everyone is well aware of the issues regarding gun control. Rehashing old arguments, both from the NRA and from the Anti-gun lobby, is going to do nothing but create rhetorical sound bites. Gun control is needed, the legislature should debate it (debates are open to the public) and then vote. Public hearings are expensive and time consuming and in this case do nothing of any value. Personally I am getting sick of the NRA types who, like petulant children, whine and protest that the government is going to take their beloved guns. For safety’s sake maybe we should act like adults and make reasonable sacrifices, such as the luxury of owning certain types of guns and ammunition. It might do little to deter random acts of violence, but at least it is a measure in the right direction. And, for the anti-gun lobby, they should be willing to admit that guns aren’t the sole cause of violence. In fact they are but a means through which violence is committed. The anti-gunners should also be acting against the mental healthcare community/profession, the disintegration of the family unit, the alienation of youth through video games, internet, etc., and, perhaps the biggest cause of violence, poverty.

posted by: Billy R on January 28, 2013 3:35pm

The second amendment isn’t right after the first amendment by chance. This has nothing to do with hunting birds!

posted by: TheMadcap on January 28, 2013 6:30pm

Oh my god, the amendments weren’t listed in any kind of importance. They all exist specifically because they were all seen as important enough to mention specifically.

posted by: Billy R on January 29, 2013 12:31am

They weren’t huh? It only took congress 4 years to agree to the first ten amendments. 4 years, and you don’t think they’re in any special order. You must have a fikkin PHD huh?

posted by: PH on January 29, 2013 11:04am

If you want to play with guns, join the state militia or the police and prove you are competent, sane and trustworthy. Otherwise I’m perfectly happy to see guns removed from the hands of people like those who were interrupting the victims of gun violence at yesterday’s hearings. The American obsession with high-powered firearms must be controlled.

posted by: Nathan on January 29, 2013 11:19am

“State cops Alaric Fox & Joseph Delahanty display assault rifle.”

Indeed, and with a bayonet attached for maximum visual iconic effect, even though I am unaware of a single crime on record committed with such a combination of military weapons.

It reminds me of the time that two state troopers testified in the trial for which I was the jury foreman; they felt the need to exaggerate details for a drunk driving stop that they could not possibly have seen or known to make sure the accused person was found guilty. The factual evidence against the guy was damning enough; the actions of the troopers tainted their statements and their profession in my eyes.

We need to stick with the dispassionate facts when debating these important situations, whether in the courtroom or for gun and crime control debates.

“Does the right to bear arms come second in the Bill of Rights because the founding fathers thought it was the second most important amendment?

No. The Bill of Rights has an order, but it has nothing to do with the relative importance of the rights. James Madison, who whittled down the long list of amendments proposed during constitutional ratification, argued that all changes to the Constitution should be incorporated into the text itself rather than tacked on the end. Connecticut’s Roger Sherman disagreed and won the argument, giving us the numbered list of 10 amendments we have today.

The order of that list, however, still reflects Madison’s view: They come in the same order as the sections of the Constitution that they would have modified.”

posted by: Chip on January 29, 2013 6:21pm

Can’t believe cowards heckled him like that. Yes cowards! The 2nd Amendment was written to be sure all whites had arms so there could be an armed militia readily organized to keep down any possible slave uprisings. The founding fathers all owned slaves and eternally feared a slave rebellion. The 2nd Amendment is now totally irrelevant! It Has no bearing on today’s gun issues. We need to repeal the 2nd Amendment and write a new amendment that makes sense for today banning assault weapons and strictly and severely limiting handguns. Also, all gun owners should be required by law to carry heavy liability insurance just as car owners. Cars are lethal and so are guns.